News

As we approach the end of another incredibly busy year, I have been reflecting on some of the outstanding achievements across North Central London and our NHS this year. Now one year on from the start of vaccinations, it is remarkable to think about just how enormous this achievement is. We have now given more than 2.6 million doses in NCL, including first and second doses and more recently, boosters. This programme didn’t exist 14 months ago and continues to be a strong focus for us, especially with the Omicron variant. . .

In this issue: North Central London Councils win LGC health and social care award; Gynaecology high-volume low-complexity hub helping to reduce waiting lists for patients; Additional diagnostic capacity to be established at Wood Green Shopping Centre; Changes to NCL patient transport services; Frances O’Callaghan appointed Designate Chief Executive for the North Central London Integrated Care Board and more.

Frances O’Callaghan has been successfully appointed as the Designate Chief Executive for the NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) for North Central London, following an open and robust recruitment process. The North Central London ICB will come into existence in 2022 when the Health and Care Bill is passed, as a new NHS body.

Earlier this month, NHS England/Improvement published a document called ‘Our plan for improving access for patients and supporting general practice’. The document is focused on outlining a package of support to increase capacity in, and access to, general practice. This includes an announcement of a £250 million ‘Winter Access Fund’. We are working with all north central London (NCL) GP practices to co-produce a General Practice Winter Access Plan for NCL with them. As the basis for our response we will use the wealth of suggestions GPs and practice staff have already talked to us about. We have also thanked all our incredible primary care colleagues for the incredible job that we know they are doing in tremendously challenging circumstances.

In spite of operating in very challenging times we are working hard to provide residents with access to faster and more convenient diagnostic testing. Over the summer additional diagnostic capacity, hosted by Royal Free London, opened at Finchley Memorial Hospital providing a range of tests for residents in NC

We are pleased to tell you that, following a robust process, North Central London’s current chair, Mike Cooke, should be the NHS Integrated Care Board chair designate for North Central London (NCL) and be ready to take up the post from April 2022, following confirmation of the plans by Parliament. The next stage of this process will be the confirmation of the ICS Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer, with this process expected to commence next month.

As Covid restrictions ended in many settings across England on 19 July, our highest priority remains the safety of staff, patients and visitors. Public Health England’s infection prevention control guidelines and hospital visiting guidance remain in place for all staff and visitors across all health services to ensure patients and staff are protected. This means that everyone visiting hospitals, GP practices, dentists, optometrists and pharmacies in North Central London (NCL) must continue to wear a face covering and follow social distancing rules, unless they are unable to do so for medical reasons.

We are absolutely thrilled to share the news that over a million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have now been given to North Central London’s residents, helping to provide vital protection to our communities against the virus. This is a highly impressive achievement, and one which has only been made possible thanks to the hard work and collaboration of health and care staff and volunteers from partner organisations across our five boroughs. We are extremely grateful for everyone’s contributions and have launched a new campaign to say 'thanks a million' to those who have worked around the clock to deliver the vaccine across our patch.

The roll out of the COVID-19 vaccination programme in NCL has seen an amazing effort from staff and volunteers from across the health and care system. We have now reached over 810,000 vaccinations given and are extremely grateful to everyone involved for their hard work and commitment. There were two exciting developments in the programme this week. The first doses of the Moderna vaccine – the third COVID-19 vaccine approved for use in the UK –­ were given in NCL. We also moved into the second phase of the programme with everyone aged 45 or over, and people with certain underlying conditions, now able to book vaccinations.

We continue to make good progress on the Covid-19 vaccination programme and have now given over 550,000 people their first dose of the vaccine. Last week we were very pleased to welcome the Prime Minister, Minister for Covid-19 Vaccination Deployment and HRH the Prince of Wales to NCL as they all visited a series of pop-up clinics at Jesus House for All The Nations Church. These clinics, run by Dr Nayeem Azim and staff from SW Barnet Primary Care Network, received worldwide media attention and a great wave of positivity in the promotion of the vaccine with local communities.

North London Partners in health and care, north central London’s Sustainability and Transformation Partnership, has announced that, following a full recruitment process, Rob Hurd has been appointed to the role of System Lead. This follows the decision to separate the roles of Sustainability and Transformation Partnership Convenor and Accountable Officer of NCL Clinical Commissioning Groups.